


Little One

by Enigmatic_Stardust



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Basically Dad Cor, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Prompto Argentum, Cor can't save them all, Escape, Gen, MT Prompto Argentum, Maybe this will diverge more from the canon, Not Beta Read, Rescue, but maybe he can save just one, we'll see
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-02 18:36:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17268932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enigmatic_Stardust/pseuds/Enigmatic_Stardust
Summary: "To Be Decommissioned."The sign blazed brightly against the small bed (tube really) for the world to see. Cor glanced down the row, keenly aware of the rushing in his ears and the angry pounding of his heart. This wasn’t in the intel report… Cor counted two-dozen containment units (he refused to acknowledge that they were beds). Each one contained a small child.Two-dozen units and he could only take one.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kaciart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaciart/gifts).



> It's my first FFXV fic xD
> 
> So...I've been following Kaciart's Tumblr for a while and she was the reason I started playing Final Fantasy XV last year. I'd never played a FF game before this one and I'm so happy that I gave it a chance. Between her art and the amazing fics that it's inspired, I found a major love for the game. I decided that I wanted to say thanks by writing a fic inspired by one of her works~ 
> 
> This fic is [inspired by this post.](http://kaciart.tumblr.com/post/172115463758) Please go make sure to give her Tumblr a peek if you like Final Fantasy! Her art is beautiful.

_To Be Decommissioned_.

The sign blazed brightly against the small bed (tube really) for the world to see. Cor glanced down the row, keenly aware of the rushing in his ears and the angry pounding of his heart. ' _This wasn’t in the intel report…'_ Cor counted two-dozen containment units (he refused to acknowledge that they were beds). Each one contained a small child.

Two-dozen units and he could only take one.

“What are you doing?” his partner hissed, “We don’t have time to wait! Stop hesitating and come on.”

He was hesitating. He looked back to his partner, frowning. There was no way the man would be able to carry a child. He only had one good arm, even if he was trying his damnedest to hide that fact from Cor the Immortal. Cor sheathed his sword and hurried over to the containment unit with the sign. His partner protested, snapping something about ruining his cover. Cor didn’t give a shit. He couldn’t save all of the kids—but he could save one.

The child inside was smaller than the others. He had a tuft of blonde hair that stuck out at odd angles and a swath of freckles plastered across a face that Cor doubted had ever seen sunlight. Cor disengaged the lock on the unit and reached inside to take out the boy, only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Cor nearly lashed out, but his partner simply held out a thin blanket to him.

“It’s cold out there. Cover him up. We’re going to have to move fast.”

“Grab the file,” Cor whispered, noting the folder underneath the “To Be Decommissioned” sign.

He gently shifted the boy so he was sitting up, and then wrapped him up into the blanket. The kid barely stirred when Cor picked him up. He remained dead to the world, head resting on his chest. The life in his arms felt so fragile and fleeting. He may as well have been carrying a newly hatched chocobo chick.

Cor’s partner took out a gun. Sweat beaded his brow, but his grip on the gun was steady as ever.

“Think of it this way. Now you get to come home early instead of sticking around here.”

He gave Cor a wary smile, “You say that…but I know my orders.”

“Orders change,” Cor said, “Your new orders are to get out of here alive and to protect the kid at all costs.”

“Understood, Marshal.”

 

They moved quickly, but carefully. His partner led the way, checking each turn before giving the signal to proceed. The halls were empty though. It was late, and even the MTs were locked up for the night. They'd stay there until the morning according to his partner. There were only a few human guards, two of which were already knocked out from Cor's entrance earlier. It wasn’t like there needed to be many guards this deep into the facility. A skeleton crew was all that the Empire needed to look after the confines of the lab. Who would escape? Child experiments locked away in tiny tubes? Programmed MTs who only knew how to follow orders? No one was looking for a way out and as far as the Empire knew, no one had found a way in.

Cor had blown his partner’s deep cover though. He was only supposed to go in, grab the intel, and get out. Stealing a project that was liable to wake up and turn into the world’s most obvious alarm was not part of the plan. Cor glanced down at the kid, expecting to see the blonde tuft still slumped against his chest, but instead, a pair of bright violet eyes greeted him. There was something uncanny about the gaze. It was all too precocious. How old was the kid anyway? The other children had looked about four or five, but it was difficult to tell given how small this one was. Cor had never been good with kids, not had he interacted with them much, but if he had to guess the boy was about the same age as the King’s son—maybe two or three.

“Stay quiet, ok?” he whispered, trying on what he hoped was a composed smile.

The boy blinked at him and gave a tiny nod. His hands clung a little tighter to the front of Cor’s shirt.

“How much farther?” Cor asked.

“Ten minutes out. There’s an exit that the scientists use that’ll get us outside faster, but it means we’ll have to take the long way out of the grounds.”

“I’m guessing there are fewer guards out there than the main halls?”

“Correct. Outside of this section is fairly well guarded. I could get through since they still think I’m a scientist, but…”

He gave the kid a meaningful glance and Cor guessed that the man wasn’t high enough clearance to be taking out one of the test subjects. _Test subject_. The thought stuck in his mind like an infected thorn. This wasn't the first kid they'd experimented on and he doubted it would be the last. Just what were they doing to them? The report was bare and his partner didn't have a lot of information either since he was only a lab assistant. The child seemed amicable enough, but that could have been a defensive mechanism. Sometimes it was safer to stay quiet, especially if you were used to rough hands and cold labs. Cor shoved the thought aside as well as he could. There would be time to fight later, once he was sure that the kid was safe.

The kid stayed quiet all through the halls. He flinched whenever he heard the telltale clacking of boots on metal or the creaking of pipes, but never once did he cry out. He didn’t even ask questions. His expression remained in a stubborn frown; his brow furrowed and his lips pursed out a little in thought.

His partner stopped him at a metal door that didn't look any different from the twenty others they'd passed. He took out a keycard and motioned for Cor to step back before swiping it and opening the door. A burst of freezing air fell into the hall. The kid recoiled, pushing in closer to Cor’s chest and hiding his face into his jacket. His partner peered out and then gave the signal that it was ok to follow.

They took off into the night. Cor shifted the kid so he could pull his jacket around him as well. It wasn’t the most effective, but at least it would shield him a little from the wind.

“It’s a near blizzard out here!” his partner groaned, narrowing his eyes against the wind.

“Can you still find the way out?”

“We’d better hope so.”

“And why are you looking for a way out?” came a voice on the wind.

Someone had managed to sneak up on them using the snow as cover. Cor’s partner surged in front of him, blocking him and the child from the woman that seemed to appear out of the storm. Cor transferred the boy to his hip so he could draw his sword if needed. The women (girl, really—she looked maybe fifteen or sixteen) in front of them was tall with silvery hair. She wore dark armor; no doubt treated so it wouldn’t burn her skin from the cold. She watched them curiously, and Cor didn’t miss the way her hand tightened around her massive spear. She reminded him of himself a little from when he first joined the Crownsguard and that didn’t bode well.

“That’s one of the test subjects, isn’t it?” She looked to his partner, her eyes narrowing. “You’re not supposed to take them outside.”

“It’s part of an experiment,” his partner adlibbed, “to see how the alterations hold up to extreme temperature changes.”

“Don’t bullshit me.” She took a step forward. “I had a feeling you weren’t really part of the magitek program when you showed up here a few months ago. You seemed way too surprised to find out about the daemon blood infusions.”

Cor felt a shudder run through him that had nothing to do with the cold. He glanced down ever so briefly at the child and saw the violet eyes once again staring up at him—eyes that should have been blue, he realized. Cor tightened his grip on the child and glared at the woman.

“Don’t test me,” Cor stated, “You’re going to turn around, and you’re going to pretend you never saw us.”

“Or, I’m going to lead you out.”

He stared at her. “What?”

“Look. I’m not fond of these experiments either. Something’s not right about them." She looked at the bundle in Cor's arms, her brows furrowing and her lip curling in what might have been a look of disgust. "I may be loyal to the Empire, but that doesn’t mean I’ll mindlessly follow them. They don’t pay me enough for that. Now stop pointing that gun at me so we can move. There’s not a lot of time. You tripped an alarm when you opened his containment pod.”

“Shit…”

“Language!” His partner nodded to the kid, giving Cor a warning look.

Cor rolled his eyes and waved at the woman to lead the way. She was right. Time was of the essence. Without hesitating, she turned and started jogging through the snow. Cor and his partner hurried after her, less wary now of making noise thanks to the dampening effects of the storm. Unfortunately, as they’d found out with her, the cover went two ways. They wouldn’t have a lot of warning if someone snuck up on them again and Cor doubted their luck would hold out.

“You said they pay you. You’re a mercenary then?”

“Something like that.”

“Bit young to be doing that,” Cor noted, ignoring the look from his partner.

“I like a challenge.”

Cor didn’t doubt that. He gave her spear and appraising look, noting the complexity of the build alone. He hated to admit it, but he was glad not to have her as an enemy right now. Encumbered by the child, he didn’t like the odds of fighting against her, even with his injured partner’s help. He knew he could hold his own, but he'd waste precious time doing so and he couldn't guarantee that the kid would come out of it unharmed.

“Not that I have to tell you, but once we get to the gate, you have to run. They’ve got plenty of dropships and are probably waking up MTs as we speak. They’ll follow you to the border and maybe further if you’re unlucky.”

Which, they probably were.

 

The sound of gunfire alerted them to their pursuit. The night exploded with light as spotlights snapped on, blaring down upon them from the high gates and watchtowers. The woman swore and turned, taking out her spear. Her silvery hair whipped through the wind before being contained by her helmet, which she thrust onto her head with a quick motion.

“I’m going to give you an opening,” she said quietly, “But you need to make it look good.” Louder, she shouted, “They’re here! On me! They've got one of Besithia's experiments! hurry!”

She charged them, and for a moment, Cor thought she’d led them on. At the last moment though he saw her smile and wink, twisting just enough to give an opening to his partner. His partner shot her shoulder pauldron, causing her to stumble back so Cor and him could rush past.

“Good luck,” she whispered before whipping around, pretending to pursue them.

Cor gripped the boy again with both arms, trusting his partner to cover him while they ran. More shots rang out, and snow sprayed up around them as bullets missed their mark. They called him Cor the Immortal because he always survived. He lived through more battles than he cared to admit where he was the only one who came out alive. He prayed that this wouldn’t be one of those times.

“I see the gate!” Cor shouted, “Stay close to me!”

A bullet grazed his shoulder and another nicked at his ankle, but they did little to slow him down. Beside him, he heard his partner cry out, and for one terrifying moment he thought that he’d gone down. Cor saw him continuing to keep pace though out of the corner of his eye, turning briefly to fire off a shot behind them.

“Forget shooting! Just run!” Cor ordered.

The man surged in front of him to grab the door. He shoved his keycard into the slot, ignoring the bullet that hit his arm. The lock turned green, and he yanked the door open. Cor and him ran through, slamming the door shut behind them. They continued to sprint down the snow-covered road, dodging shots as best they could. Overhead, they heard the thundering rumble of dropships preparing to disembark.

“Quick! The woods!”

Cor and his partner leaped off the main path and tumbled down the hill into the dark forest. Cor hadn’t expected the hill to be quite so steep and immediately lost his footing. He cradled the boy close, trying his best to shield him from the fall, tumbling through the snow and brambles. He landed hard on his back and stars swam briefly in front of his eyes before he forced air back into his lungs. He sat up, checking on the boy before taking stock of his own hurts. The kid was absolutely covered in snow and had ruddy cheeks, but he seemed unharmed. Cor didn’t feel anything particularly wrong with himself other than a few bruises that he would most certainly still feel two weeks from now.

His partner groaned next to him. Cor looked over and swore. Nothing seemed broken that hadn’t already been, but in the snow, he could see just how much blood the man was losing from his injuries. Cor hurried over, taking out a potion from his bag.

“Save it…for the kid. It’s going to take more than a potion to patch me up now.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Cor said, despite knowing that the man wasn’t entirely wrong.

He'd packed light when he'd left Insomnia since he hadn't wanted to attract too much attention. He was regretting that now.

“You can half heal me and have me drag you down, or you can run and I can stall so you can make sure the kid survives.”

Cor took a deep breath. “I never got your name. It wasn't in the report when they sent me out.”

“It's Prompto Arcus.”

“Well Prompto,” Cor broke the potion over him, watching the potion soak into the man’s clothes and exposed skin, “It’s nice to meet you. Glad to have you join me on this mission.”

“What are you doing?” Prompto gasped, sitting up with a wince.

He flexed his previously injured arm and checked his other injuries. He'd be functional, at the least, which was how Cor needed him if he was going to get them both out alive.

“Saving your as—hide.”

He cast a quick look down at the kid who’d somehow managed to fall asleep through all of the commotion and jostling. Cor shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips. “Just like his highness.”

Cor got to his feet and helped Prompto up. He looked towards the horizon, calculating their descent.

“Come on. It’s going to be a long night.”

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, you guys <3 I didn't expect the response this story got! Thank you so much for all of the kudos and comments. You guys are awesome!
> 
> This chapter was a lot longer than I intended, but the character interactions kept coming and I wasn't really sure how long the trip would take? Hopefully, I wrote Cor well. I'm so used to reading/seeing fic Cor. I think that bled into my depiction of him a lot.
> 
> Again, please make sure you check out [Kaciart's tumblr.](http://kaciart.tumblr.com/) Their work is absolutely amazing.

It had yet to stop snowing. Cor could barely feel his hands, which now felt like numb stumps at the end of his wrists. Arcus shivered against his shoulder. It was all Cor could do to keep him moving. He’d stopped talking hours ago and after collapsing, Cor had picked him up and hoisted one arm over his shoulders, practically dragging him along through the dark forest. They had to be near the border by now. Astrals he hoped they were or this was going to be a short rescue mission.

The kid was barely shivering now, despite being wrapped in both Cor’s and Arcus’s jackets as well as the blanket they’d filched from the base. They needed to find shelter for him and fast, but it was becoming increasingly more apparent that the usual outposts weren’t going to be an option. There weren’t a lot of havens in Niflheim as they’d discovered. Hell, Cor was pretty sure there weren’t any at all in the empire. It was probably safer for them to press on anyway. Every so often he caught the low rumble of a distant dropship, but thankfully, none of the ships had found them in the thick woods. ‘ _Still, if we don’t stop soon they’re both going to freeze to death.’_

Cor weighed their options. He’d hoped to avoid taking a train, instead opting to travel by foot for the majority of the way back, but with an injured partner and a kid, traveling by foot wasn’t looking like a good idea. They would need food too that was suitable for a toddler. It was fine and dandy for him to hunt some game for himself and Arcus or to eat rations, but the kid wouldn’t be able to handle that. He’d practically choked to death on the bit of jerky Cor had tried to feed him earlier. ‘ _What do toddlers even eat when they’re not the Prince?’_ Cor couldn’t tell if he had a headache. The cold made his entire head throb.

“Just a few more minutes,” he said quietly, more to reassure himself than anyone else, “We’ll bunker down soon as we find somewhere safe.”

There were only trees around though. No hunting lodges or even low bushes that they could burrow under. Cor stumbled after a particularly deep snow bank caught his foot. Arcus and the kid tumbled out of his arms, causing both to jostle and wake up as they rolled down into the snow.

Arcus groaned, but sat up and forced himself to get to his feet on his own. The kid barely reacted other than to briefly cry before silencing himself. Cor’s heart broke. He scrambled forward and picked up the kid, cradling him close. He wasn’t even shivering anymore.

He’d wanted to save the kid, but he was going to die out here anyway.

Some Immortal he was.

“There’s a light up ahead,” Arcus said, pointing towards a distant flicker, “Could be a rest area.”

“Even if it is, that’ll only solve one problem.”

“Eliminating the possibility of daemons attacking is a pretty big problem to solve.” Arcus reached out, helping Cor up with a grunt, “Ger…come on. You’re the one who said the mission changed. The kid has to make it back to Lucis alive.”

“Oh look who’s awake. Glad you got to rest up after I carried your ass for two hours.”

“I told you to leave me behind.”

“Shut up.”

He smirked though and he caught a smile on Arcus’s face too. His dark brown hair was white from the snow, frozen completely in place like some strange ice sculpture. He didn’t seem to notice though. He started marching on towards the light, hunched up against the icy wind.

“So how’d you end up getting assigned to deep cover? Last I saw you were one of the trainees favored for front-line combat, right?”

“I’m surprised you remember me. It always seemed like you ignored anyone who wasn’t in the Crownsguard already.” Arcus reached out, adjusting the blankets and jackets around the kid while he walked. “Before I joined up, I had a background in biology focusing predominantly on the study of daemon physiology. Another agent learned about the work that the empire was doing, but since they weren’t all that well versed in the field they needed to send in someone who could understand what they were seeing and protect themselves at the same time.”

“Not too many Kingsglaive who have a background education in something that specific I’m guessing.”

Arcus nodded, “Literally none of them, so I became their defacto agent. Hurray for me.”

“You’ll get home soon and back to your job—or hell, back to university if that’s what you want. I think after this you’ll have the right to ask for whatever you want.”

Arcus gave a hollow laugh, “At the very least I know they won’t send me back out to the First Magitek Production Facility. Bit infamous now thanks to you.”

“It was pretty smooth how you took out the guy trying to shoot me when I walked in.”

“Eh, you would have been fine without me. I’ve just wanted to knock some heads for a while.” He shuddered, “What they did there…the experiments they ran—and not just on the kids. They’re messing with something they shouldn’t be.”

“I’ll read the report with everyone else,” Cor said, “The last thing I want to think about right now is that place.”

“You’re telling me.”

The trees broke in front of them to reveal a road—the very road that Cor had traveled down to get to the facility only hours before. Across the street, a bright light illuminated the ground and beneath it was an old, broken down car.

“Think I found some shelter.”

“Better than nothing,” Cor agreed, crossing the street and heading towards the car.

It took some work to open the doors. Frost had corroded the metal, turning it to rust, but once they managed they shuffled awkwardly inside and shut themselves in. It was only moderately warmer, but their body heat would help heat the space as time passed and it collected.

“I wish we had something to change the kid into. He’s soaked.”

“I think my shirt’s mostly dry,” Arcus said, stripping off the thin lab coat he’d been wearing, “Bloody, but better than what he has now.”

Cor hated to pull the child off of him, but they couldn’t change his clothes otherwise. He rested him on his lap, using his knees to cradle his head. The kid remained asleep while he carefully tugged off his wet clothes. Cor’s eyes fell on the bold black mark on his wrist. For a moment he thought that frostbite had started to eat away at his hand, but then his brain processed what it was actually seeing.

“They all have them,” Arcus said, noticing his gaze, “Labels. It lets them operate the facility to once they’re…older.”

Cor swore quietly, but continued to move, putting Arcus’s shirt on the boy before once again pulling him close to his chest and wrapping his arms around him. The blanket and jackets would have to dry before they would be useful again. It took a while—longer than Cor would have liked, for the kid to start shivering again. When he did, he started to whimper. It was a small, stuttered cry, the sort that he’d heard Prince Noctis use when he was trying to be tough.

“You’re alright,” Cor whispered, rubbing his back, “We’ll find somewhere nice and warm to camp tomorrow. I promise.”

“Go ahead and get some sleep, Marshall. I’ll take first watch.”

Cor would have protested, but he was exhausted and he knew better than to tell someone no when they offered to be the lookout. It was better to take the rest he could while he could get it, especially since he had the feeling he would be carrying both the kid and Arcus again tomorrow.

 

They slept longer than they meant to. When Cor woke up, he saw the kid watching him through guarded, but hopeful, violet eyes. He flinched when he saw Cor’s eyes open and shuffled off of him, standing at sheepish attention between the little space between the front and back seats.

“It’s alright, I’m not going to hurt you. We had a pretty long night, huh?” Cor looked over at Arcus, “Hey, time to wake up.”

Arcus groaned and rubbed his eyes. It took him a moment to come to full awareness. Cor saw the exact moment when everything began to click into place: groggy processing, ‘ow, something hurts’, and finally ‘ah, that’s right’.

“I didn’t mean to fall asleep…”

“It’s alright. No harm done.”

Cor looked back to the kid. In the daylight, it was easier to see everything wrong with him. His thin arms were littered with old bruises from needles and too hard grips. He had a pinched look to him and held himself far too still for a toddler. Cor sighed and rustled around in his coat pocket for some rations that would be suitable for a small mouth and sensitive stomach. He found a soft fruit bar that he broke off in bits to feed him. It took some coaxing and Cor had to take a small bite to show that it was safe, but eventually, they got some sustenance into the kid.

“He needs a name,” Cor mumbled. Neither he nor Arcus offered one. “Come on, kid, let’s see if the jackets and blanket dried at all.”

Thankfully they had, although they were still freezing to the touch. Cor held them for a while to warm them up before wrapping up the boy in them.

“So what’s the plan, Marshal? We can’t keep gallivanting through the snow, not with the kid.”

“There’s a train station not far from here if I’m guessing our location correctly.”

“There’s no way they’ll let us on looking like this.”

Cor’s eyes lingered on the dried blood still caked to Arcus. “I’ll steal some luggage. No one will miss a few shirts.”

“ _I_ miss my shirt.”

Cor chuckled, but the sound was cut short when the kid started to strip off his shirt.

“Hey, hey, hey, that wasn’t us saying you needed to give up your nightclothes. Here, let’s put that back on.”

“I’ve still got my lab coat,” Arcus reassured the kid, “I’m nice and warm.”

“Are we going back to the lab?”

His voice was so quiet that at first, Cor thought he’d imagined it. He wasn’t sure why it surprised him to hear the kid talk: Prince Noctis was a chatterbox when he liked you well enough. The kid seemed just as startled to speak and put his hands over his mouth as if to prevent it from betraying him again.

“We’re never going back there,” Cor assured him, “We’re taking you somewhere better.”

“You can’t phrase it like that,” Arcus said, “He’s just a little kid. He won’t get it.”

The kid stared back at him. Small tears started to build in the corners of his eyes and Cor quickly put up his hands.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok. We’re just—that place was…ah…we’re going somewhere fun, ok?”

“Permission to ask questions?”

Cor looked to Arcus, who answered for him, “Go ahead.”

“What is ‘fun’? Why are we going ‘somewhere better’ and why aren’t we returning to the lab? I am scheduled to be decommissioned. Is that where we’re going? To be decommissioned?”

“What? No! Of course not!” He didn’t mean to snap. The kid’s lip started to quiver. “I mean—yes, you’re being decommissioned, but not like the others. You’re starting a new…program?”

Arcus nodded encouragingly at him out of the corner of his eye and Cor had to resist the urge not to jab him in the ribs. The kid processed the explanation, sniffing a little as he did.

“Is that ok?” Cor asked.

The kid looked to Arcus, waiting for permission to confirm or deny. Arcus nodded, waving him on. The kid immediately bobbed his head, his eyes widening.

“I’d like to be decommissioned in the way you want, sir. Not like the others. I promise I can still be useful and will be a good subject in your new program.”

This was going to be a long trip. Cor had thought the kid had precocious eyes, but this was something else. Cor reached out, intending to scruff the kid’s hair, but he stopped when he saw the kid cringe away. Astrals he wasn’t ready to handle something like this…but then who was?

“I guess there’s no time like the present. We’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”

 

They arrived at the train station before dusk. Cor left the kid with Arcus while he went and “acquired” some clothes and other necessities from another train’s luggage compartment before it sped off back into Niflheim. Cor managed to get some new clothes for Arcus and the kid, as well as some much needed first aid supplies. Before buying their tickets, they went to the rest stop to clean up and change into something that didn’t scream “fugitives of the Empire”. Cor bandaged Arcus’s still healing injuries and took time to wash the dirt and grime from the kid’s face and hair using a wet cloth and water from the sink. The shirt and pants he’d found for the kid were for a much larger child, but they were clean and warmer than what he’d had on. The kid kept tugging at the sleeves, a look of awe on his face.

“What’s up?”

“It’s soft…” the kid whispered.

“You’re going to get a lot more clothes like that once we get to Lu—once we get home.”

He’d learned the hard way that the kid didn’t react well to words like “Insomnia” or “Lucis”. He’d had a complete meltdown near the station when Cor was looking at the map to figure out which train they would need to take. Time would unravel that training and conditioning, Cor figured. Time and lots of care.

 

They boarded the train without incident up until the point where the conductor asked for everyone’s tickets and passports. Cor and Arcus both had theirs (forged, of course), but the kid had nothing.

“He’s my son—new son. I don’t have any papers for him. I only just found out about him a few weeks ago. His mother’s gone…”

The conductor squinted at him, “I can see the resemblance. Alright, I’ll let it go this time, but make sure you have everything in order the next time you travel. Other conductors won’t be so charitable.”

“Will do, and thank you!” Arcus said.

They let out a collective sigh of relief. Even the kid seemed to understand and relaxed in Cor’s arms, resting his head on his chest the way he had the previous night. He closed his eyes and before long, he was asleep again. He slept a lot, Cor noticed. He wondered whether it was because he was recovering from his time in the lab or if he was getting sick from their travel. He hoped it was the prior.

“We should get him some real food to eat,” Cor said quietly, “It’s a little concerning that he hasn’t asked yet or cried about it.”

“He probably knows better.” Arcus stood up before the implications of his words could set in. “I’ll go see what I can find at the food cart. I’m sure they have something there.”

 

The food cart had applesauce, fruits, and soft bread that Cor and Arcus assumed would be good for the kid. Like before, it took some convincing to get him to eat. Worse, once he did start eating he ate too fast and made himself sick. He wasn’t too good with the motion of the train either. Another passenger came over after the fifth time the kid got sick, offering to help.

“I have two boys of my own,” she said, fishing through her bag, “Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it. Here, this should help.”

She handed over a bag of crackers, a fizzy ginger drink (“Without caffeine--last thing we want is to rile him up”), and a teabag.

“He probably won’t want to have any of that now, but see if you can’t get him to snack at least on the crackers and to drink the tea.”

She checked on them periodically throughout the next few days during their trip to the port. When she got off at Cartanica, she gave them a small bag of supplies that she said wouldn’t need now that her journey was over. Cor couldn’t thank her enough.

 

Getting to the port and across to Accordo was far easier than the trip out of Niflheim. At last, Cor felt like he could breathe. Arcus was almost completely recovered and the kid, against all odds, was starting to flourish under their care. He spoke more, ate without quite as much hesitation, and had found a love for coloring thanks to one of the coloring books (he preferred the chocobo one) that the woman had left him in her bag of miracles. He was a far cry from the wary kid they’d picked up in Niflheim.

As happy as Cor was to see the improvement, every time he saw the kid’s smile something in him broke just a little more. There was the one bright light of the kid, but then all he could think of were the dozens of others he was forced to leave behind. Cor wasn’t normally the sort of man to have nightmares about his past or about mistakes, but he was constantly hounded by dreams of the containment units and blazing “To Be Decommissioned” signs. If Arcus had similar dreams, he hid it well.

The kid had a lot of nightmares as well. Frequent naps were needed to combat his restless sleep, which was fine by Cor since it meant he could get some extra shuteye too. He’d thought trainees were a handful. He knew better now.

 

They arrived at Galdin Quay a little over three weeks after leaving Niflheim. Unfortunately, staying the night at the hotel or even caravan was out of the question at this point. They’d all but exhausted their gil due to their unexpected expenses. So they hiked up to the nearby campsite for the night and tried to make it as comfortable as possible. It was a warm night thankfully, and the kid was easy as ever despite the lack of a proper tent or sleeping bags. _‘A little too quiet,’_ Cor thought, looking down at the kid curled up in his lap.

Arcus was already asleep, lounging on his back with his jacket under his head like a pillow. Sleeping without a watch wasn’t an option, even in Lucis. The daemons would avoid their location, but Cor decided he’d rather not be surprised by any other creatures like voretooths during the night.

The kid stirred in his lap, seemingly unable to get comfortable. Cor rubbed his back, frowning when he noticed it was damp with sweat.

“You alright, Kid?”

The kid looked up at him and nodded, but Cor saw the tears in the corners of his eyes and the slight, telltale ashen look his skin took whenever he was sick. Cor sighed, ruffling his hair (it was crazy how fast and fluffy the kid’s hair grew).

“What did I tell you before? If you’re sick, it’s good to tell me. Friends tell friends how they feel. Right?”

The tone still felt strange and the words awkward, but it was what the kid needed and he wasn’t going to feel embarrassed by it, even if Arcus did snicker sometimes. The kid had to get used to normal human interactions, not the bullshit mock military crap they’d drilled into him.

The kid hesitated. “I don’t like the blue light.”

Ah. He’d never seen a haven before so that wasn’t surprising. Cor ran his hand along one of the lines, tracing the energy with his fingers.

“It’s not scary. See? It doesn’t hurt.” Again, he saw the hesitation. “Why don’t you like the blue light?”

“It _does hurt_ ,” the kid said, very quietly.

He reached out to touch the line like Cor but flinched way, holding his hand as if he’d been burned. Cor gently took his hand into his own. Black veins ran under the skin where he’d tried to touch the lines. Cor took a closer look at the rest of the kid. He was covered in inky veins.

“Oh kid…” Cor was at a loss.

The damned Niffs had made the boy allergic to havens. If he reacted this badly to simple havens, how would he react to the Crystal? Cor held the boy closer, trying his best to comfort him the way he’d seen the mother comfort her children on the train. The kid cried, silently at first, but it became a full out bawl as the night wore on. Arcus woke up and tried to help, but there wasn’t much that could be done.

“Best thing may be to ride it out. He was decommissioned because he kept rejecting the treatments, to begin with. Maybe the haven will burn out the residual daemon blood?”

Cor wanted to think it was worth a shot, but it was hard to be patient and “ride it out” when the kid couldn't stop crying. He wanted to take the pain away with a Band-Aid and a quick kiss on the head the way he took away the pain from the kid’s bruises and scrapes when he fell.

It was a long night. By the time the sun started to creep over the horizon though, the kid had finally worn himself out. A noxious, inky substance had wormed its way out of his nose and through his tears. It evaporated in the haven’s light.

 

They took the trek across Leide as easily as they could. The kid was in relatively good spirits considering the night he’d had. Cor and Arcus took turns giving him piggyback rides until he finally asked to walk on his own. They marched hand in hand across the parched landscape, stopping every so often when the kid saw some new fascinating sight. The walk was filled with questions. The kid wanted to know everything. Cor never tired of hearing his voice pitched with excitement and curiosity.

“We’ll rest tonight at the campsite at the south of the Three Valleys,” Cor said during their lunch break, “It’s not too far from here and, if we make good time tomorrow, we might be able to get a lift from Hammerhead to Insomnia.”

Arcus stretched his arms over his head, “It’ll be good to be back home.”

Cor agreed..to a degree. He missed the king and his fellow Crownsguard, of course, but getting back to Insomnia meant deciding the fate of the kid. He knew there would be a lot of bureaucratic red tape while they decided whether the kid was a threat or not, and whether he should be studied. Cor had gone into Niflheim to retrieve intel about the magitek program and technically, he’d succeeded. He'd brought back a living sample of their research. However, Cor intended to do everything in his power to protect the kid and to keep him away from any more labs, even if it meant petitioning the king himself to make a stand. He hoped that the king would understand his view. If the kid were dangerous, he would have done something already. Any intel they could have gathered about his alterations had faded thanks to their stay at the haven. He was just a normal boy who needed a normal family.

“You know,” Arcus said, breaking the silence, “I remember the look my sister had when we were kids and she saw this puppy out in an alleyway. It was a sweet thing, but it was pretty ill. My sister took it in and helped heal it. She did it in secret, of course—our parents would never allow us to keep a pet. The healthier the puppy got, though, the more time she tried to spend time away from it. She never even named it. I thought that was strange. She cared enough to heal it, but she was acting like she wanted it to be as far away from her as possible. I didn’t understand until our parents found out and told us we could keep the puppy. All that time she’d been so scared of losing the puppy that she’d refused to let herself get completely attached.”

“A touching story,” Cor said, purposely ignoring the thread that Arcus was trying to get him to grab.

“I know it’s not my place…but have you considered—?” He gave a meaningful nod towards the kid.

“He needs stability. He needs a family who doesn’t know anything about him or his past that can dote on him every day so he can forget about it all.” Cor stopped himself from brushing the kid’s hair. “I’ve got one oath already. I can’t take on another.”

“You’re lying to yourself,” Arcus said, “if you think you can’t.”

“I don’t see you jumping at the opportunity either.”

“I have a lot less financial stability than you do,” Arcus grumbled, “Do you think university was cheap?”

Cor got to his feet and held out a hand to the kid, “We’ll cross the bridge when we get to it, I guess. I just know that whatever happens, I’m going to make sure he turns out fine.”

He looked down to see the kid watching him. Not for the first time, he wondered how much the kid understood and took it. Cor smiled at him.

“Ready for more walking?”

He nodded, “I like walking. I see lots of things and you tell stories.”

“Just wait until you hear some of his real stories,” Arcus said with a grin.

“Real stories?”

“Don’t confuse the kid. All my stories are real.”

“Right, because you met a giant purple chocobo who carried you all the way home.”

“Why don’t you take a turn telling stories then?”

Arcus tried to. Most of the stories he told were old nursery rhymes, the sort that even toddlers were bored of hearing, but the kid lapped them up, enthralled by the newness of them. Arcus preened under the attention and Cor wondered if there was a part of him who did want to take the kid in. Maybe he was trying to distance himself too. It wasn’t like either of them had named the kid yet.

 

A growl cut off Arcus’s story. Cor turned just in time to shove the kid out of the way of a voretooth. Cor lashed out with a quick slice of his blade before picking up the kid who was scrambling around on the ground for a rock to use as a weapon. Cor felt a small surge of pride. He’d taught the kid how to throw rocks just the other day and he had good aim.

“Grab the kid!” Arcus shouted unnecessarily while drawing his gun.

The pack of voretooths descended upon them, yowling and snapping. They were easy to take out, usually, when a small child wasn’t involved. The kid clung to Cor’s shoulders with a desperate grip, his small legs wrapped around his chest as tightly as they could. Cor cut down another voretooth as it leaped at him while a third fell to Arcus’s shot.

It should have been an easy fight. It would have been if a hundlegs hadn’t been disturbed by the brawl. Just as Cor took out another voretooth, there was a cry of pain behind him and Arcus went down. To Cor’s horror, the kid jumped off his back and screamed at the giant insect, throwing his small rocks at it. The hundlegs turned, looking towards its very tiny annoyance, and prepared to strike.

“Get off Arry!” the kid shouted, all but charging the hundlegs.

Cor swore and switched targets, taking a bite from a voretooth while he swung to cut off the hundleg’s attack. He sidestepped the arthropod’s lunge and pinned it down into the ground with his blade as if it were a much smaller bug fit for a collection case. A final shot rang out as Arcus sat up, shooting the last voretooth, before collapsing back onto the ground.

The kid ran over to him, shaking him and putting his tiny hands over top of the bloody hole in his side. Cor withdrew his blade and rushed over, pulling out the first aid kit. No remedy. No potion. Useless bandages.

“Hammerhead’s not far,” Cor mumbled, double-checking that he hadn’t missed anything useful in the kit.

“Far enough for the venom to work…” Arcus grimaced.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Cor said, working to staunch the bleeding.

The kid followed his directions without being told. He held the gauze in place with steady hands despite the tears rolling down his chin. Arcus reached up, wiping them away.

“Hey, no need for that. Didn’t Cor just say not to be dramatic? It’ll be fine, kid.”

“You’re being decommissioned though,” the kid cried, “I don’t want you to be.”

“He’s not dying today. Keep holding that there, just like that. Ok, move your hand when I bring the bandage around. Good job.”

Cor finished binding the wound and then hefted Arcus up over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. Arcus cried out, but thankfully didn’t struggle.

“Hammerhead’s hours away…with me like this, we won’t reach it before the daemons come out.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“Hey, Cor? Something happens, make sure you do me a favor?”

“Nothing’s going to happen!”

The kid surged along in front of them. He held Arcus’s fallen gun in his blood-soaked hands, holding it at the ready. He kept looking back towards them, as if to make sure they were keeping up even though he didn’t know the way. Cor wanted to tell him to put the gun down, but against his better judgment, stayed silent. If they were attacked again, at least he would be able to defend himself.

“Marshal. Listen, Please.”

“What?”

“If I don’t make it, make sure you see this through. I’m not just talking about getting the kid to Insomnia. I mean making sure he’s ok. Give him a name at least before you dump him off.”

“I’m not too good with names. You’ll have to give him one once we get to Hammerhead. That’s an order.”

“Your orders are hard to follow, you know that?”

Cor adjusted his grip, trudging ahead. He could feel the blood soaking through onto his back and shoulders. Hammerhead wasn’t too far though. He’d walked further while injured. At least Arcus had someone to carry him. They were nearly to Insomnia. He wasn’t about to let someone die now, not this close to home.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay and the cliffhanger last chapter~ I had a lot of work to do, but I finally finished!
> 
> Fun fact that I realized I never mentioned: the title comes [from this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inhn2sTkRbk), which I listened to a lot while writing it.

The sun barely touched the horizon. Cor licked his lips, hyperaware of the weight on his shoulders. Arcus had fallen silent about an hour ago, but Cor could still hear his ragged, shallow breaths in his ear. They were going to make it. They were so close. The threat of failure jabbed into the back of his mind, worming doubt into his mind. He pressed on, pushing it back the way he pushed back the pain from his own injury and the exhaustion from their trek.

The kid was a real trooper. Cor couldn’t help the pride he felt, watching the boy scouting a dozen feet ahead, calling out whenever he spotted something that might give them trouble like a small pack of sabertusks or steep hills that he didn’t think Cor would be able to get down with Arcus on his back. The kid never complained, even though Cor could see the weariness in his eyes and the way his shoulders slumped ever so slightly forward. He just trudged ahead, one foot after the other, determination in every step.

“Cor!” the kid called, pointing to the northern horizon, “There’s a light!”

Cor rushed ahead to meet him. Sure enough, he could just make out bright florescent lights and Hammerhead.

“Look at that, Arcus. Almost there.”

There was no response. The kid looked up at Arcus, his little eyes watery again. Cor reached down, ruffling his hair.

“Think you can still lead the way?”

The kid nodded, once again hurrying ahead and taking point.

 

The sun slipped past the horizon. The chill of night settled in fast, blanketing over the desert. The kid continued to truck along, stumbling over a few invisible rocks hidden within the darkness. Gods he hated deserts. They were too flat. He could see Hammerhead in the distance, tantalizingly close, but it never seemed to get any closer. Cor picked up his pace, triggering the kid to also scurry along a little quicker.

“Careful, kid. The daemons are going to be out now. Stay close to me.”

“I’m ok,” he called back, “I’m going to protect you and Arry.”

“I’m sure you’d be great at protecting us, but protecting is supposed to be my job.”

“I want it to be my job too so Arry isn’t decommissioned.”

With that the kid ran off ahead, the heavy gun still clutched in his small hand. He’d been carrying it all day without tiring. There was a question on Cor's tongue, one he didn’t dare bring to the surface. Asking it would invite too many other questions, ones he didn’t want to know the answers to. He didn’t want to know why the kid knew how to hold the gun properly or why he was able to check that it was loaded after picking it up off of the ground. He didn't want to know why he looked so comfortable with it.

 

Hammerhead was finally within range.

“Just ten more minutes, Arcus.” 

As soon as he said it, purple tar and smog started to bubble up from the parched earth between Cor and the kid.

“Kid!” Cor shouted, sprinting towards him just as the imps clawed their way out of the ground.

The kid stared at the daemons for a heartbeat before he raised his gun and fired. The kickback sent him stumbling backward. Cor scooped him up before he fell, tucking him up under one arm. Cor glanced back briefly over his shoulder just in time to see one of the daemons melting away from the kid’s fatal shot.

“Well done,” Cor said, “Keep watching our back, ok?”

“I can’t aim right like this,” the kid said with worry tinting his words.

“Just do your best. I know you can do it.”

His sides burned and his arms protested from the extra weight, but he didn’t dare stop running. He could hear the imps still behind them and the pop of a second shot from the kid told him all he needed to know.

“Did you hit it?”

“Yes!”

“Good job.”

“I only have one more shot.”

“Save it for when they get close, ok?”

The lights were just ahead—they just had to cross the road.

The kid screamed and the final shot rang out. Cor didn’t turn—he couldn’t—he just sprinted across the road and into the light.

 

The daemons fell back, screeching at their lost prey. Cor fell to one knee, panting. The kid struggled out of his arm and put the gun down before trying to take Arcus off of Cor’s shoulders. He only managed to lift one of Arcus's arms before Cor groaned and pushed himself back up.

“I’ve got him. Run ahead to the garage there—the big square building. Go ask for Cid.”

The kid nodded dutifully, picked up his gun again, and tore off to the garage. Cor followed after him a little slower. The door to the garage opened just as Cor caught up. He’d expected to see Cid at the door, but instead, a little girl with short blonde hair stood in the threshold, eyeing the kid and Cor with wide, cautious eyes. Cor thought he’d heard something about a grandchild.

“Go get your grandpa. Tell him Cor needs him.”

The girl cast the kid another wary look before bolting off into the garage shouting for her ‘paw paw’. A moment later, Cid came out. He looked ready to scold Cor for one reason or another until he saw the limp body slung across Cor’s shoulders.

“Well, what are you doing standing there still? Get him inside.”

 

* * *

 

Cor watched the kid run after the little blonde girl, Cindy. It was hard to believe how much he’d changed during the short time since his rescue from Niflheim. He was like a whole new kid. His smile could light up a whole room now. Cor heard him laugh for the first time while playing with Cindy. In the few days since their arrival to Hammerhead, his eyes had changed from a dull violet to a bright blue. The last of bits of Niflheim were fading away from him.

“He’s like a whole new kid,” Cid commented, coming over to watch the two children.

“Gives me hope that he’ll assimilate without too much trouble.”

“’Assimilate’? You’ve got a weird way of looking at it.” Cid crossed his arms, giving Cor a hard look. “Are you still planning on handing him off once you get to Insomnia?”

“That was my mission…get the intel and bring it back.”

“ _Was_.”

Cor ignored Cid’s pointed stare. “If take him back, they’re just going to keep on experimenting on him. He’ll never get to be a kid.”

“You can’t lie about where you got him though if you take him back. It's too easy to piece together. You could leave him here.”

“I can’t keep an eye on him if he’s here. I’m going to talk to Regis and see what we can do. There’s got to be a way to keep him safe and give him a normal life. I’m not letting the council take him. They can never find out what he is.”

They were quiet for a beat, watching the two children. Cor heard that Cindy recently lost her parents. Cid mentioned it had been a long time since he'd seen Cindy this happy. Leaving the kid behind at Hammerhead wouldn't be the worst ending for him. He could be happy here. Cor didn't doubt that Cid would put him to work, but he'd be loved. The selfish part of Cor couldn't do it though.

“You finally thought of a name for him?” Cid asked, breaking the silence.

Cor huffed, exasperated, “Not you too.”

“You have though, haven’t you?”

“Prompto. I’m thinking of naming him Prompto after the guy who found him.”

Cid smirked, “Suits him. I’m sure Arcus would appreciate the sentiment. He gave a lot to get the kid here.”

“Stop talking about me like I’m dead.”

Arcus limped over and immediately earned a scolding from Cid for getting out of bed without help. Arcus laughed nervously before taking a seat in one of the folding chairs. He was looking better, although Cor knew that it would be a long time before he fully recovered. The venom did a number on his body and they’d almost been too late with the remedy. Still, the color had returned to his face and he only had a slight tremor now in his hands.

“Are you sure you should be moving around yet?” Cor asked.

Arcus rolled his eyes, “I can’t stay in bed forever.”

“You might as well rest while you can.” Cor frowned, “Are you alright with his name being Prompto? I know it’s a little weird, but I warned you, I’m bad at names.”

Arcus watched the kid, his expression soft, “I don’t mind. I’m just glad it was all worth it. When you first picked him up I thought you were insane. You didn’t know what they’d done to those kids. I thought ‘there’s no way this kid will recover.’ Look at him now though. You’d never guess.”

The kid squealed with a high-pitched laugh as Cindy caught him, tackling him to the ground.

“I’m thinking about adopting him. I’ve got the means and he’d be safe with me.”

Neither Cid nor Arcus seemed surprised. Cid let out a heavy breath though, shaking his head.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I can take care of a kid. We got this far together and he trusts me. It would be easier for him to stay with me.”

“I don’t doubt that, but I don’t think it would be the safest place. Those files you brought back detail the experiments the kids--including him--underwent. You think you can hide that he’s one of those kids by keeping him under the council’s nose? Besides, you have your duty to the king. If you want him to have a normal life, you’re going to have to choose between your oath and that kid.”

“Then what do you suggest? I’m not just going to dump him into the system and hope that it turns out fine.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Arcus sat up a little. “I agree that you can’t just toss him into the system, but I might know someone who will take him that's been looking to adopt. He'd have a normal life with her.”

“I’m listening,” Cor said stiffly.

“My sister’s wanted a kid for a long time, but she and her husband have had some trouble. She could adopt him. If she adopts him, we can still keep an eye on him without it looking too suspicious. We’ll say that he’s the son of a hunter who died and that we picked him up here.”

Cor looked back to Prompto, who’d finally managed to get out from under Cindy. They were chasing each other again, running back towards the camper at the end of the lot. Their chatter carried back indistinctly over the wind towards him. He knew this was the sort of life he wanted for Prompto—one where he could forget his past and live a normal life with a normal family.

Cid put a hand on his shoulder, “You know what you’ve got to do. Let him go.”

Cor swallowed hard. “You really think your sister will take him?”

Arcus nodded.

“I’ll…make sure Prompto knows the situation then.”

Cor turned away from the other two and started to head towards Prompto. It was going to be hard trying to explain to the kid why he had to say goodbye.

 

* * *

 

_Fifteen years later…_

 

It was hard to miss the bright tuft of blonde hair at the end of the line. Cor ignored the familiar face for as long as he could, walking down the line to inspect each of the perspective Crownsguard candidates with his usual steely expression. Most of them came from lineages--joining the Crownsguard was expected of them. And then he got to the boy--man, really, at the end of the line. Short, wiry, and a commoner hand selected by the Prince himself to join his entourage. 

Cor had kept a careful eye on Prompto over the years—a distant eye, but a careful one nevertheless. He’d sent toys and books through Prompto’s “Uncle Arcus.” He even sent him a camera for his tenth birthday after he’d heard that the kid had developed an interest in photography. Arcus showed him photos whenever he could and passed along a wallet-sized school photo at one point.

It wasn’t until Prompto was sixteen that Cor finally got to meet him face to face again. Cor never could have imagined that the kid he’d rescued might one day become friends with the Prince. He’d been dropping Noctis off at school and found none other than Prompto waiting at the front entrance for Noctis. Prompto didn’t recognize Cor, but that wasn’t surprising. Arcus mentioned that most of his memories of the rescue had faded away along with his time at the lab. It was a blessing for Prompto, but that didn’t stop Cor from feeling an ache at the lack of recognition in his eyes when he saw Cor and tried to both bow, wave, and salute at the same time. They’d seen each other a few times since, usually in Noctis’s presence.

Fifteen years and the kid he'd saved from Niflheim was now willing to pledge his life to the crown prince of Lucis. Cor couldn't help but shake his head at the irony. He'd tried so hard to make sure that Prompto would have a normal life and somehow he'd managed to come right back into the line of fire. He should have known better. Even as a kid Prompto was stubborn about protecting the people he cared about.

“Argentum,” Cor stated, stopping in front of Prompto.

Prompto looked up at him, blue eyes searching for some indication of why Cor was staring at him so intently. Cor relented after a pause too long as he pushed back the memories of the small boy he used to know.

“Well done in drills today. You’re a good marksman.”

“Right! I mean, thank you, Marshal.”

“Had a lot of practice before today?”

“No—I mean, video games at the arcade, but that doesn’t really count since it's really different but—“ He clamped his mouth shut, cheeks flushing a little.

Cor had to fight back a smile. “Keep up the good work.”

And there it was. That bright, lopsided grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, my first FFXV fic.
> 
> Thank you again for all of the comments! I really enjoyed seeing all of the reactions and predictions for the end of the story. I hope you don't mind the happy ending.
> 
> I definitely debated killing Arcus, but in the end, I just couldn't. It felt a little too mean. 
> 
> I'll probably write some more FFXV fics now that I'm not quite so scared of writing for the game. There's just so many good fics already that I was honestly super intimidated, especially since it was those fics and Kaciart's art that got me into the game to begin with.
> 
> Again, thank you for reading!


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